Are you ready to change the world and create a profitable, life-first business? This is exactly what I wanted when I created my own six-figure coaching business in just six hours per week. Below, I’ll share my top tips for growing a coaching business so you can earn more and work less.
Is a coaching business profitable?
You can have a profitable coaching business with the right offer(s), marketing strategies, and systems. The coaching industry continues to grow and is expected to reach $11.7 billion globally by 2032, making space for many successful coaching businesses.
Through my work, I’ve seen just how profitable coaching can be. I’ve helped dozens of clients scale their coaching businesses to multi-six figures in part-time hours through my Peace + Profit program. I also used this program’s process to generate over $150,000 in the first 18 months from my own signature program, which I’ll discuss below.
9 tips for growing a coaching business
To grow your coaching business, I recommend moving from 1:1 coaching, creating a signature program, and running frequent launches. Below, I’ll share my top tips for creating a successful and profitable coaching business.
1. Move from 1:1 coaching
Offering 1:1 coaching services can be the best way to start your business, but it doesn’t allow you to sustainably scale. With 1:1 coaching, you eventually tap out on how much you can earn. After all, you’re only one person with limited capacity.
Think of it this way: if you want a 6-figure coaching business and sell single sessions for $100, you’d have to run 1,000 sessions per year to earn $100k. That, on top of admin tasks, is a recipe for burnout.
If you want to create peace in your business while increasing your earnings, it’s crucial to step away from 1:1 coaching.
2. Create a signature coaching program
So, what do you do if you’re not offering 1:1 services? You move towards a time-leveraged signature coaching program.
There are many steps to creating a signature coaching program, but I promise it’s the way to grow a coaching business, earn more, and even work less. In fact, this is how I went from feeling like I was always frantically chasing my tail, treading water, and never making progress to earning a comfortable income to working six hours per week and earning six figures.
To create your signature coaching program, you’ll start by brainstorming and developing a blueprint that’s based on both peace and profit. This is what I teach in my Peace + Profit Mastermind program to help established service providers, course creators, and consultants scale to multi-six figures in part-time hours.
When brainstorming your program, consider the problem you can help people solve, the transformation you can offer, and who the program is for. If you have 1:1 clients, you may already have an idea for your program.
When developing your signature program blueprint, map out the transformation the program will offer, the program name and tagline, module topics necessary for providing the transformation, and possible bonuses and upsells. This is your first draft, so you can make changes later if needed.
3. Set your prices for sustainable profit
One of the simplest tips for growing a coaching business and earning more is to set your prices for profit.
If you sell your program for $49, you’d have to sell to 2,000 people to earn six figures. Even if you have a large audience and spend ample time marketing to make these sales, this can lead to you overworking and burning out.
What most people don’t tell you about low-priced offers under $97 is that the vast majority will only ever break even on ads – even if you’re a pro and even after 50+ iterations. Low-priced offers aren’t designed to provide you with a wage; they’re designed to provide you with leads with profit coming from a signature program on the backend.
Pricing for profit doesn’t mean you must sell your offers for thousands of dollars each, either. Even a $499 program lets you earn six figures with 200 yearly sales. During this time, you can grow and scale with advertising instead of hustling on social media or waiting until you have a large audience before reaching six figures.
4. Run your launches
When I teach coaches how to grow their business with a signature program, frequent live launches are a key component. I recommend two types of launches: an ascertain launch and an all-out live launch.
An ascertain launch, or a pilot or beta launch, lets you ascertain demand to ensure your audience is willing to pay for the program before you get lost in creating the content, sales material, etc. The all-out live launch takes place after you’ve delivered your program to the first cohort and finalized the program.
Your ascertain launch isn’t meant to be a huge moneymaker. Instead, you’ll try to sell your signature program to about six people from your warm audience (e.g., former clients or other people who might find your program helpful). Then, you’ll get feedback from your beta testers as you create the program.
After you complete the ascertain launch and your program is ready, you can run your all-out live launch. This is usually a two to three-month process where you’re creating a runway to help your target audience understand how your program can take them from zero to hero and offer the transformation they’re looking for.
5. Organize your assets for frequent launches
One of the most time-consuming parts of business is creating marketing and launch materials. But what if it doesn’t have to be that way?
I recommend using a tool like Asana or Google to keep your assets in one place. This allows you to save time that you can otherwise spend on money-making tasks or away from your business.
With organized materials, it’s also easy to rinse and repeat launches every 90 days or so for a more consistent income. Frequent launches have been the key to success for my business and many of my clients.
6. Increase brand awareness to grow your audience
To grow a successful and profitable coaching business, you need to continue increasing your brand awareness to grow your audience. The more you do this, the more inbound leads you’ll get for sustainable growth. In fact, 19% of marketers say increasing brand awareness to reach new audiences is the most effective marketing strategy.
Through brand awareness, you can become an authority in your niche and build trust with a wider audience for more sales. Brand awareness also allows more people to become familiar with your offers.
Some of my favorite marketing strategies to help increase brand awareness and show up as an authority include:
- Email marketing – Marketers report that email marketing offers one of the highest return on investments. I’ve even gotten 1,500 new email subscribers in three weeks, which helped me have one of the most relaxed launches in my business! To build your email list, you’ll need to create a lead magnet to encourage people to sign up.
- Content marketing – I find content marketing one of the best ways to increase traffic and email sign-ups for successful launches. This can include blogging, creating YouTube videos, sharing social media content, and podcasting.
- Webinar hosting – A webinar lets you share helpful tips and answer questions about your offer(s), creating trust with your audience for more sales. After a webinar, you can follow up with a thank you email and prompt to buy your offer.
7. Start an affiliate program
With an affiliate program, you can encourage your clients to help with your marketing by sharing your offer(s) with others through a special link. In return, they get a percentage of the sale or a specific dollar amount when someone purchases through their link.
An affiliate program can help you build a successful coaching business because it increases your reach. And 92% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know, resulting in more sales.
8. Create more revenue streams
Once your signature program is converting well, this becomes the hero of your brand messaging, content creation, and authority. But that doesn’t mean it has to be your only revenue source.
In fact, 40% of my revenue comes from additional revenue streams that have been strategically created and are largely behind the scenes.
My biggest tip on creating additional revenue streams is to ensure they don’t dilute your signature program and confuse your messaging and authority. Instead, leverage opportunities for profit with minimal lift on the backend of your business.
Additional revenue streams might include the following:
- Continuity programs – After your clients successfully finish working with you in your signature program, they could work with you in a more premium, longer-term capacity. You can use this type of program to support them with more sophisticated problems they need to solve.
- Premium upsells – Once someone joins your signature program, is there an opportunity for them to upgrade to a VIP tier? This may include a personal audit/plan, 1:1 time, or additional bonuses to help them implement your program faster.
- Cross-sells – After someone joins and/or completes your signature program, you could offer other resources for additional support. For example, if you have an 8-week Meta Ads Live Launching Bootcamp delivered as a group coaching program, a cross-sell could be a program to help them with Pinterest advertising or using Meta Ads to grow their Podcast or YouTube Channel.
- Affiliate revenue – If there are tools within your signature program that are necessary and helpful, you could recommend them with an affiliate link or code. For example, I frequently recommend Kartra for sales, email lists, and course platforms because I know from experience that it’s a game changer for sales and can help my clients, too.
9. Outsource time-consuming tasks
When you outsource, you hire a third party to help you with business tasks, from marketing to admin. For example, I first hired a podcast manager and now work with a virtual assistant who helps with various tasks.
Many coaches think outsourcing is wasted money, but it can actually be an investment when done well. Benefits of outsourcing include handing off tedious, time-consuming tasks and having more time to focus on parts of your business you enjoy.
However, your team needs to make sense for you, your business, and your goals. You don’t want to have so many team members that you’re losing money or spending too much time managing.
If you could use help in your business, I recommend identifying your goals and auditing your business to understand which area you need the most help in. Then, hire someone to help with this or a virtual assistant to help in several areas.
I also recommend using software and suppliers that make business easier, like Kartra, my favorite all-in-one software for emails, courses, memberships, and more.
Additional resources for growing a coaching business
Building a business you love that allows you to live the life you want takes work, but it’s totally achievable with the right strategies. This is what I teach my clients, and would love to help you with, too!
If you’d like more support growing a successful coaching business, you might find these resources helpful:
- Signature Online Course Secrets – My podcast to help female coaches, consultants, and service providers grow and scale a profitable, part-time business
- Tools and tech – My little black book of tech, suppliers, and software to help you build your online business with ease
- Peace + Profit Mastermind – An intimate, 6-month program for established female service providers, consultants, and course creators who want to double their revenue while working 20 hours or less per week